Last year, Colgate promoted their floss with a very
clever campaign. Check out the following images, and then read on:
Fascinating. After closer
examination, (in my case, MUCH further examination), we see that the images
have been significantly altered by Photoshop. In the top photo, the woman has a
few too many fingers on her left hand. In the middle photo, a seemingly
dismembered hand rests on the man's shoulder. In the bottom photo, the man is
missing an ear.
The point of this 2012 campaign is
to emphasize one simple point: when you have food stuck in your teeth, there's
a big chance that people are going to notice very little else.
Let's be honest: flossing is a far
cry from an enjoyable activity. Colgate understands this, but cannot avoid
addressing this vital practice of oral hygiene. They created advertisements
that are fun, playful and do a wonderful job of keeping an audience captivated.
I went to the dentist last week and
received a free roll of floss. It may not be Colgate brand, but I am certainly
going to put it to use.
Fallon is one of the strongest and most creative
advertising agencies in the midwest. Based in Minneapolis, Fallon has done
incredible work on campaigns such as Buffalo Wild Wings, Cadillac, United
Airlines and HR Block. Their office in London has produced equally creative
campaigns branching from Cadbury, United Airlines and Sony.
As an advertising buff, I have nothing but respect
for Fallon. Their office produces commercials that are award-winning and
overwhelmingly creative. My critique lies within the brand recognition between
the clients and the work produced by Fallon.
I am able to describe a Fallon commercial perfectly
after viewing, but I struggle to name the brand of the commercial. This
problem does not lie with just my critical eye: after the 2006 production of
their Fallon commercial, United Airlines (their commercial is the third youtube
clip below) ended up dropping Fallon after almost ten years of campaign work
(New York Times, 2007). This clientele loss shows the proof of name-brand loss
within Fallon's work.
Fallon will forever be branded as "unreal
creativity" in my mind, but I still hope to find the link between their
work and their client in the future. Below are three of my most memorable
Fallon commercials-- The Cadbury Gorilla, the Sony Colors, and United Airlines:
Illustrated.
Pro's: The purple background is easily rezognized as "Cadbury" as it
is in every one of their commercials/brand recognition.
Con's: After
watching, I find myself a victim of the dreaded "Huh?". I cannot find
the link between the humorous gorilla and the taste of Cadbury Chocolate.
Pro's: If played as a Superbowl ad, the sound effects would certainly break
through the clutter of spoken-ads.
Con's: Again, the "Huh?"
factor, as well as NO brand recognition. When I first viewed this commercial, I
wrote down "Skittles" and "Sherwin-Williams" as my guesses
for the client. I would have the colors exploding from televisions within the
main building vs. random plants outside in order to tie together the product
and the commercial's creativity.
Pro's: This
United Airlines Commercial is beautifully illustrated. After the commercial is
over, I can draw conclusions about how the story can be tied to the client's
name.
Con's: Uncertainty of the brand while viewing the commercial.
Anew advertisement for the gay social networking site Manhunt was recently put on up a billboard in Los Angeles. Within a week, it had rocked the boat.
A local mom, Kelly Cole, says she doesn't want her kids seeing such images of “blatant porniness” and she said that it is regardless of whether such material is of the “homo- or heterosexual” variety.
Manhunt's CEO Jason Harvey thinks that Cole’s statement is untrue, responding "gay sexuality is still scary and controversial for many people.”
It is also interesting to me that I have not read anything about Michael Kors' new L.A. ads, and the Beckham’s Armani shoot was far from “offensive”.
Overall, the advertisement works for Manhunt. And that’s the bottom line.
Funny Or Die has produced another hilarious celebrity advertisement. In a 3-minute anti-testicle rant by Katherine Hail for the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation's pet neutering program.
Being a natural comedian, Heigl makes the spot absolutely hilarious with an over-the-top nature. There have been comments about the PSA running “too long” and “might have been better split into three or four shorter spots”. I thought it was very funny, and it made me look deeper into a topic and campaign that I know absolutely nothing about.
In general, I thought this advertisement was hilarious. I question its effectiveness though. Although I have no real position on this topic, I wonder how people feel about it being made into a comedic advertisement? Either way, it got a laugh out of me, and hopefully a few other viewers.
Get Up! is a LGBT advocacy group in Australia. In November, they released this touching commercial lobbying for marriage equality. In recent research conducted by The Third Way, a think tank in Washington D.C., it has been shown that suggested that a message of equality isn't as effective for those opposed to gay marriage as a message of commitment is. If this research continues to prove to be true, this commercial titled “It’s Time” may just get the point across. I hope it comes to American television stations, but with 3.5 million views on YouTube, it is becoming a viral sensation quickly.
The main point of the commercial comes into effect in the last 10 second “twist”. In the 1:56 clip, you follow a man in a relationship over the important moments of his and the relationship’s life— everything from going to an amusement park to being supportive after the death of a parent. There's nothing in the commercial that would lead you to believe their relationship is different from any other. The ending made me smile, and I thought that it was brilliant, inspirational, and incredibly effective.
In a funny series of PSAs, the advertising agency Draftfcb promotes pet adoption in Chicago.
In these short TV spots, pets examine the eccentricities of their owners. A cat attempts to figure out why a woman is texting all day, a dog is amused at how bad his owner is at hide and seek, in addition to two other scenarios.
They're cute ads, playing to emotions for animal-lovers, yet interesting and rational in the sense that the dogs and cats are criticizing their owner’s “strange” ways.
This campaign is extremely different than any Humane Society commercial that I have ever seen, and I think that’s a huge strength with differentiation.
Pet owners: beware! You might not want to know what your pet is thinking about you after all!
FedEx has released a new TV spot, showing how easy it is to ship with their company from Canada to the US. Through portraying a goose in Canada sending a little hockey stick to a puppy in Florida, FedEx’s goal is to show viewers it’s “that easy” to ship through them.
The floor is painted to resemble the geography of Canada and the U.S. "We make less urgent shipping to the U.S. awesome," says the onscreen tagline. The simplicity of the tune in the background adds to the fascination of watching the complex domino structure fall. Dominoes have been used in ads before, but the idea of using FedEx boxes is fresh and new. I found myself laughing out loud at how creative it was, and it was definitely an effective campaign.
